A journal dedicated to truth, freedom of speech and radical spiritual consciousness. Our mission is the liberation of men and women from oppression, violence and abuse of any kind, interpersonal, political, religious, economic, psychosexual. We believe as Fidel Castro said, "The weapon of today is not guns but consciousness."

Monday, February 27, 2017

At the Tampa, Florida Black Expo, poet/author Prosperity Carter dusts off a customer checking out her forthcoming book How to Get Off the Shelf Collecting Dust. She will be featured in the March issue of The Movement Newspaper, Voice of the Black Arts Movement International, of which she is Associate
Editor. In May, Prosperity will study at the University of Ghana, West Africa. While in Ghana, she will be hosted by The Movement's Pan Africa Editor, Hip Hop diva Muhammida El Muhajir, now residing in Accra. While in Africa she will be on assignment for the Oakland Post News Group. Prosperity is now available for speaking and reading engagements coast to coast and globally. Contact the Black Arts Movement Speakers and Artists Bureau: 510-200-4164; mxjackmon@gmail.com

See their work. Know their names. Learn their stories.

On the first day of Black History Month, the good people at Google blessed the internet with a doodle honoring Edmonia Lewis, the first woman of African-American and Native American descent to earn global recognition as a fine arts sculptor.

Lewis, who grew up while
slavery was still legal in the United States, became known for her
hand-carved, marble sculptures of influential abolitionists and
mythological figures. In part because Lewis made all of her sculptures
by hand, few originals or duplicates remain intact today. She died in
relative obscurity in 1907, and, to this day, remains lesser known than many of her white, male contemporaries.

This well-deserved tribute
to Lewis got us thinking about the other black women artists whose
contributions to the history of art have been similarly overlooked or
undervalued. So we reached out to museums across the country, asking
which artists past and present deserve our attention, too. Below are
nine of those artists:

1. Pat Ward Williams (b. 1948)

Whitney Museum of American Art / Purchased with funds from The Audrey Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation

Pat Ward Williams is a Los
Angeles-based contemporary photographer whose work explores the personal
and political lives of African-Americans. Initially, the artist set out
to disrupt the homogenous way black life was captured on camera. “We always looked so pitiful, like victims,” she told the LA Times. “I knew I was a happy person. There were aspects of the black community that weren’t being shown.”

Attempting to break past
photography’s tendency to linger on surfaces, Williams incorporates
other media and methodology into her process, yielding mixed media
collages that collapse past and present, history and imagination.

Her most famed work,
featured above, features a photo of a bound black man chained to a tree,
pulled from a 1937 issue of Life magazine. “Who took this picture?”
Williams writes in the margins of the photo. “How can this photograph
exist?”

Jamillah James, a curator at
the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, wrote to The Huffington
Post: “Pat Ward Williams’ prescient, complex meditations on race,
history, and representation, such as her landmark “Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock”
(1986), resonate with a particular urgency and relevance in today’s
cultural climate. Her combination of photography, found materials, and
text engages viewers in a perceptual tug of war between what they see,
their own associations, the artist’s voice, and the weight of history.”

Shared courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

2. Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998)

Loïs Mailou Jones was a
Boston-born painter whose plentiful, 70-year art career spanned North
America, Europe and Africa. Her eclectic style shifted over time, taking
inspiration from African masks, French impressionist landscapes and
bright Haitian patterns. An active member of the Harlem Renaissance, she
used vibrant visuals to heighten the urgency of her politically charged
works, which addressed the joys and challenges of black life.

“Mine is a quiet exploration,”
the artist famously said, “a quest for new meanings in color, texture
and design. Even though I sometimes portray scenes of poor and
struggling people, it is a great joy to paint.”

After teaching at an
African-American art school in segregated North Carolina, Jones
eventually took a position at Howard University in Washington, D.C.,
where she taught for 47 years. Upon retiring, she continued to paint and
exhibit her work until she died at 93 years old. Despite not being a
household name to some, her art lives on in esteemed institutions like
the National Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

3. Alma Thomas (1891–1978)

Alma Thomas, born in
Columbus, Georgia, moved to Washington, D.C., with her family as a child
to avoid the racial violence in the American South. Interested in art
from a young age, Thomas was the first student to graduate from Howard
University with a degree in fine art. There, she studied under Loïs
Mailou Jones while adopting an aesthetic of her own.

Thomas’ style pulls elements
from Abstract Expressionism and the Washington Color School, drawing
from the splendor of nature to create nonrepresentational canvases that
sing with soft vitality. Famously, Thomas was most inspired by her
garden and would watch with fascination as the scenery changed around
her.

“I got some watercolors and
some crayons, and I began dabbling,” she said. “Little dabs of color
that spread out very free ... that’s how it all began. And every morning
since then, the wind has given me new colors through the windowpanes.”

Jones taught at a junior
high school for most of her life, making work on the side. She had her
first exhibition at 75 years old, later becoming the first woman to have
a solo exhibition at The Whitney.

4. Laura Wheeler Waring (1877–1948)

Laura Wheeler Waring, raised
by a pastor and teacher in Hartford, Connecticut, was interested in art
as a child. In 1914, she travelled to Europe, where she studied the old
masters at the Louvre and specifically the works of Claude Monet. When
she returned to the United States, due to the encroachment of World War
I, Waring went on to teach and lead the departments of art and music at
the Cheyney Training School for Teachers.

Although Waring worked in
landscapes and still lifes, she is most celebrated for her paintings,
which depicted accomplished black Americans with dignity and strength.
Her most well-known series is the 1944 “Portraits of Outstanding
American Citizens of Negro Origin,” which featured depictions of individuals including W.E.B. Du Bois, Marian Anderson and James Weldon Johnson.

During the Harlem
Renaissance, Waring also contributed pen and ink to the NAACP magazine
The Crisis, working alongside activists to address probing political
issues. An exhibition of Waring’s work showed a year after her death at
the Howard University Gallery of Art.

Shared courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

5. Barbara Chase-Riboud (b. 1939)

Born in Philadelphia,
Barbara Chase-Riboud began taking art classes at a young age. As a
student at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, she sold a woodcut
to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. By the time she graduated
from Yale with an MFA, she had a sculpture on view at the Carnegie
Mellon Institute.

The artist is known for her
larger-than-life sculptures made from cast metal and shrouded in skeins
of silk and wool, the strange lovechildren of a suit of armor and a
ballgown skirt. At once strong and fluid and feminine and mechanical and
natural, the stunning works became a symbols for feminine strength, as
well as a visual manifestation of transformation and integration.

“I love silk, and
it’s one of the strongest materials in the world and lasts as long as
the bronze,” the artist said. “It’s not a weak material vs. a strong
material [...] the transformation that happens in the steles is not
between two unequal things but two equal things that interact and
transform each other.”

Chase-Riboud, who currently
lives between Paris and Rome, is also an award-winning poet and
novelist, known for her 1979 historical novel Sally Hemings, about the non-consensual relationship between former President Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.

Shared courtesy of theThe Studio Museum in Harlem.

6. Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960)

Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Saundra Williams-Cornwell

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was
raised in Rhode Island by an African-American mother and a
Narragansett-Pequod father. She attended the prestigious Rhode Island
School of Design where she studied painting and drawing, notably
portraiture, and worked as a housekeeper to pay tuition. She graduated
amidst the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance.

In 1922, Prophet moved to
Paris, in part frustrated by the racism rampant in the American art
scene. Despite being broke and exhausted, she was creatively invigorated
by the change of scenery and began creating sculptural portraits from
materials including wood, marble, bronze, plaster and clay. Of the
works, art historian James Porter wrote (quoted in Notable Black American Women):
”The pride of race that this sculptor feels resolves itself into an
intimation of noble conflict marking the features of each carved head.”

Despite the fact that her
sculptures were exhibited at high-society salons, Prophet herself
remained impoverished abroad, eventually forcing her to move back to the
States. There she continued to submit her sculptures to galleries and
competitions, while also teaching art at both Atlanta University and
Spelman College. (She was rumored to bring a live rooster to class for
her students to sketch.)

Eventually, Prophet moved
back to Rhode Island ― in part, again, to escape segregation ― at which
point her career slowed down dramatically. Although few of her
sculptures are accounted for today, one is housed in the permanent
collection of The Whitney in New York City.

Shared courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

7. Maren Hassinger (b. 1947)

Born and raised in Los
Angeles, Maren Hassinger began dancing at the age of 5. She intended to
continue studying dance as a student at Bennington College, but ended up
switching to sculpture. In 1973, she graduated from UCLA with a
master’s degree in fiber art.

In her work, Hassinger
combines elements of sculpture, performance, video and dance to
investigate the relationship between the natural and industrial worlds.
Her commonly used materials include wire, rope, garbage, leaves,
cardboard boxes and old newspapers, often arranged to encourage
movement, as if the sculptures themselves are engaged in a dance.

Hassinger’s work explores
personal, political and environmental questions in an abstract language
that allows viewers to come to their own conclusions. “All the pieces
with boxes are about our gross need to consume, and where it leads us,”
she once told BOMB. “Where is the bleeding heart in all of this? I
don’t think my work has so much to do with ecology, but focuses on
elements, or even problems we all share, and in which we all have a
stake.”

Since 1997, Hassinger has
served as the director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland
Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

Shared courtesy of the Hammer Museum.

8. Nellie Mae Rowe (1900–1982)

Nellie Mae Rowe was born in
rural Georgia, one of nine daughters. Her father, a former slave, worked
as a blacksmith and basket weaver; her mother made quilts and clothes.
She married at 16 and, when her husband passed away, married another
widower at 36. When he died, Rowe was 48 years old and began a new life
as an independent woman and an artist.

Rowe referred to her
blossoming interest in art as a chance to re-experience childhood. She
began to adorn the exterior of her house, which called the “playhouse,”
with stuffed animals, life-sized dolls, animal-shaped hedges and
sculptures made of chewing gum.

Along with her
installations, Rowe created vibrant and flat drawings from humble
materials like crayon, cardboard and felt-tip markers. Her images
normally consisted of humans and animals swallowed by colorful, abstract
designs and often referenced personal struggles in her own life. When
she was diagnosed with cancer in 1981, Rowe channeled her emotions into
her work, grappling with her changing body and attitudes towards death
through bold, symbolic imagery.

9. Senga Nengudi (b. 1943)

Senga Nengudi was born in
Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Los Angeles, California, soon after. She
studied art and dance at California State University, where she
received her BA and MFA. In between degrees, she spent a year studying
in Tokyo, where she was inspired by Japanese minimalist tradition as
well as the Guttai performance art groups.

In the 1960s and ‘70s,
Nengudi was an elemental force in New York’s and Los Angeles’ radical,
avant-garde black art scenes, though her acclaim never quite spread to
the mainstream. Along with artists David Hammons and Maren Hassinger,
she formed Studio Z, an artist collective that shared a love for
abandoned materials and overlooked spaces. The collective often wore
costumes and carried instruments to improvise performances at unlikely
locales like freeway underpasses or abandoned schools.

Nengudi’s most iconic
sculptural performance project, called “R.S.V.P.,” featured pantyhose as
a central material. Exploring the everyday object’s relationship to
skin, constriction, elasticity and femininity, Nengudi stretched and
warped the sheer undergarments so they resembled sagging body parts and
abstract diagrams. She’d often recruit collaborator Hassinger to
activate the sculptures by dancing through them, privileging
improvisation as the mode of ritual.

“When we were kicked off the boat,
improvisation was the survival tool: to act in the moment, to figure
something out that hadn’t been done before; to live,” Nengudi told
Hyperallergic. “And the tradition goes through Jazz. Jazz is the perfect
manifestation of constant improvisation. It has to be in place at all
times. Constant adjustment in a hostile environment, you have to figure
something out right away.”

Shared courtesy of the Hammer Museum.

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to reiterate that the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was non-consensual.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Names of God in Islam

The 99 Names of God (Arabic: أسماء الله الحسنى‎, translit: ʾasmāʾu llāhi lḥusnā) also known as The 99 attributes of Allah, according to Islamic tradition, are the names of God revealed by the Creator(God) in the Qur'an.
The 99 Names of God (Allah) according to the tradition of Islam are:
Name-English Name: Arabic

Allah is the personal name of God and Muslims worship God mostly by
this name. The names refer to "characteristics" and "attributes" of God
(Allah).
The English translation of names may have a slightly different meaning than the original Arabic word due to the words available in each language.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

"When I hit Merritt College in 1962, I encountered many people who determined my destiny as a revolutionary Black nationalist, among them Richard Thorne, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen, Isaac Moore, Ann Williams, Ken and Carol Freeman, Ellendar Barnes, Judy Juanita, et al. I also met some elder women steeped in the revolutionary black nationalist tradition, e.g., Mother Ruth Hagwood and Mother Kakinya, later the legendary grand diva of Bay Area politics, Edith Austin, who used to say my name three times, "Marvin, Marvin, Marvin!" But Mother Makinya survived Mother Hagwood and Edith Austin. She spread Kwanzaa consciousness throughout the Bay Area and throughout Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

photo Charles Brown

photo Charles Brown

photo Charles Brown

photo Charles Brown

photo Charles Brown

It was a joyful celebration of her joining the ancestors at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetary Chapel today. The African American last rites was officiated by Minister Imhotep Alkebulan. The Black National Anthem was delivered by Darinoso Oyamaseia with the Leon Williams Ensemble, followed with "Breath" by the Stones of Fire. My favorite "preacher lady poet" Tureeda Mikell delivered a poem for our Queen Mother. BlackArts Movement poet Avotcja delivered a love poem in honor of Mother, informing the audience revolution is an act of love and Queen Makinya was the living embodiment of love through persistent service to her people.

Two of my favorite musicians accompanied Avotcja, then performed themselves, Joan Tarika Lewis on violin and Destiny Muhammad on harp. My favorite percussionist Tacuma King performed as well.

The repast was in the Ruth Beckford Room at Geoffery's Inner Circle. The meal included greens, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, chicken and fish. A larger community memorial is planned."

--Marvin X

Publisher, The Movement, Voice of the Black Arts Movement International

February 22, 2017

Wanda Sabir on Sister Makinya, Queen Mother of Kwanzaa

by Wanda Sabir

Renaissance
woman Sister Makinya is responsible for the establishment of Kwanzaa as
a seven-day ritual ceremony for African people beginning in December
1967. Here she celebrates her 80th birthday. – Photo: Wanda Sabir

Sister Makinya Sibeko-Kouate (July 1, 1926-Feb. 4, 2017), née
Harriett Smith, was born to Turner Smith and Willette Edythe Parker
Smith in San Leandro, California, on July 1, 1926, her parents’ only
child. She attended kindergarten at Cole School in Oakland, then moved
to South Berkeley, where she attended Berkeley Public Schools, among
them, Longfellow Elementary School.

Fourth generation of a pioneering African-American family,
descendants from Madagascar and Tanzania – her more recent ancestors
were freed from Virginian slavery and migrated to California before the
Civil War. Her maternal grandfather, Theodore Parker, was a leader in
the early African-American labor union movement, her great-grandfather,
Edward West Parker Sr., was a member of the National Colored Convention
Movement that led the fight for African-American rights in the late 19th
century, and her other great-grandfather, Capt. William Henry Galt, was
an officer in the Sacramento Zouaves, an African-American militia unit
that worked in the successful effort to keep California out of the
Confederacy before and during the Civil War years.

Sister Makinya followed proudly in the tradition of her freedom-fighting ancestors.
Her great-grandmother started the Daughters of Coelanth, a companion
organization to the Masonic Order founded by her husband, Edward West
Parker Sr. She was the first Black woman to enroll and graduate from an
all-girls college in Vancouver, British Columbia. This same descendent
also founded St. Augustine Church in West Oakland at 27th and West
Streets in the late 19th Century. “The founder’s name has been
conveniently deleted from church records,” Sister Makinya would always
state.

As chairwoman of the YWCA, Western States, Sister Makinya attended
the National Convention on its 100th anniversary. She was honored in
Berkeley by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women as a “Global
Community Visionary.” Sister Makinya taught piano at age 13 and also
performed with a 24 Grand Piano Ensemble for the 1939-1940 World’s Fair
at Treasure Island. At 16, having studied aerodynamics, she enlisted in
World War II, “bringing airplanes in on a beam.” She was one of the
first air traffic controllers, stationed in Alameda.

Geri
Abrams, Carol Afua and Wanda Sabir (far right) join Queen of Kwanzaa
Sister Makinya (next to Wanda) to celebrate Umoja, the first day of
Kwanzaa, at Youth Uprising on Dec. 26, 2008.

In 1946 at 19, she married her first husband, whom she called “the
best man in the world.” The two were avid golfers. When he passed, she
married again. In the 1950s, under the tutelage of Barney Hillburn,
first Black director of HUD, she later became the first woman manager of
a 527-unit housing project.
She was a social reporter for California Voice, the oldest Black
newspaper in California. In the early 1950s, she completed San Francisco
Teachers Normal College, which later became San Francisco State. She
graduated with honors and a teaching credential. She also continued to
teach piano.
In 1965, she attended Merritt College, where she studied business
administration and real estate. As the first Black student body
president in the Peralta Community College District, she helped develop
the first Black Studies Department in 1966.
It was as president of the student body that she and 10 members went
to a Black student conference at UCLA, where Maulana Karenga attended.
He gave Sister Makinya a mimeographed sheet of paper with ideas on a new
Black holiday called Kwanza (her spelling). When the students returned
to Oakland, Sister Makinya hosted one of the first Bay Area Kwanzas in
her home.

When she graduated with honors from Merritt College she began taking
Kwanza around the world. Sister Makinya traveled to 36 American states
and 13 African nations to share her knowledge. She became widely
recognized as an individual who was instrumental in spreading
traditional community Kwanza celebrations throughout Northern
California, the United States, Europe, Africa and Mexico.

Paradise treated Sister Makinya to dinner at the Kingston 11 Jamaican
Restaurant, he presented her with the first Black Elders Fund Award, on
Feb. 24, 2016.

The educator taught students in every grade from nursery school to
post-graduate from 1985-2005. From 1985-1995, the radio show host had an
interview program on KPFA, 94.1 FM, called Face the Day.
A lover of the arts, Sister Makinya, from 1998-2016, danced for the
ancestors with the International Japanese Buddhist Obon Odari Festivals
of Joy in 12 California cities. She also attended the Amachi Ashram in
San Ramon. She was an award-winning poet.

Sister Makinya was made Queen Mother of Kwanza in December 2015, and
posthumously by Harambee Connection Media Network in February 2017.

Although Sister Makinya was the last survivor in her direct family
line and she left no direct descendants, she leaves behind a multitude
of friends, acquaintances and extended family who considered her their
beloved and treasured sister.

There will be a small ceremony at Evergreen Mortuary in the chapel
this Thursday, Feb. 23, 1 p.m. This is also where she will be interned:
6450 Camden St. in Oakland. The repast follows immediately at Geoffrey’s
Inner Circle, 410 14th St. There will be a larger community celebration
of Sister Makinya’s life at a later date to be announced. It will be
posted on Facebook.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Dr Boyce Watkins: How the black scholar’s voice is suffocated by racism in academia

by Dr Boyce Watkins

I was thinking the other day about my days teaching at Syracuse
University. I thought about the days when I started off as a naive
young scholar, believing that I could change the world behind the walls
of the Ivory Tower. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the same
rules of racism and white supremacy not only apply in academia, they
are actually magnified.You see, many scholars and academic departments run a little like the
United States prison system and the NCAA, two other organizations that
exist without much governmental oversight. In all three venues, racism
often runs unchecked, and there isn’t much recourse for those who are
consistently marginalized by institutional culture that is inherently
built on an undeniable belief in black inferiority.

Rather than being embraced for having new ideas and objectives, young
black scholars are treated like uninvited guests into someone else’s
home or like intellectual orphans who should be happy to be given a
place to live. When I was in the business school at Syracuse
University, they hadn’t, at that time, given tenure to one single
African American in over 100 years of operating history. The Ku Klux
Klan could not have had a worse hiring record.

The problem for us as black folks is that we REALLY NEED our
scholars. We need them solving critical problems in our communities.
We need them speaking out on important issues. we need them writing
about topics that matter, instead of suffocating under the reign of
intellectual babysitters who’ve imperialized their agenda. When our
scholars disappear, the black community loses. The fact is that about
98% of our PhDs are nowhere to be seen when it comes to dealing with
things that actually matter to their people.
I made this video to describe my experience with white supremacy in
academia with the hope that it helps someone else. The truth is that
the chains of Blackademia won’t disappear unless you cut them off.
Sometimes, you may also have to cut off your own foot in the process.

Known around the world for producing the first historical
global documentary on Hip Hop music and culture, Muhammida El Muhajir
hails from Philadelphia as a natural born, generational entrepreneur.
She sheds light on what for her has so far been a vivacious,
illustrious, and multifaceted career.
AC: Afrocipha
M: MuhammidaAC: Muhammida, what does it mean to be raised with the spirit of an entrepreneur without fear of the world?
M: I was taught to believe if you have an idea it can be manifested.
That is hard for a lot of people. I am a fifth generation
entrepreneur. My paternal grandparents had their own newspaper in
Fresno, California. My grandfather, a floral shop. My grandmother was
one of the only black realtors in Fresno. On my maternal side, my great,
great grandfather came to California, to the Bay Area–Pittsburg to be
exact. So my great great grandfather came to the Bay and owned a number
of businesses — hotels and bars. Coming from this lineage, this is a
part of who I am. You are really trained to be an independent and
critical thinker. My mother was an entrepreneur. She never said you
should have a business but I knew how to start and sustain a business. I
never went to business school. I never took a marketing class in my
life.AC: In 2014 you were chosen to become a marketing and
communications fellow in Ghana, at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School
of Technology. What have you/did you find most inspirational and most
instructional about being a Fellow in Ghana?
M: I was most interested in the Fellowship because I wanted to
immerse myself in the tech space and learn as much as I could about the
eco-system, change-makers, power players, startups, media, etc. I also
wanted to better understand how my consumer brand marketing, branding
and communications skills would translate in the tech world. I found
that ultimately being a creative marketer has nothing to do with the
product itself but the innovation in strategy is what’s most important
whether a sneaker, a soda or startup e-commerce company. Working with
Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) gave me the
opportunity to work in Africa with some of the continent’s most
brilliant minds and entrepreneurs while also being connected to Silicon
Valley (where Meltwater corporate is based) and the global tech
community. I stay up to date on African tech trends and personalities by
editing two blogs, Women in Tech on meltwater.org and the Tech page for
OMGGhana.com.
I also felt that incorporating a knowledge and understanding of
technology would greatly impact my marketing and communications. Gaining
an understanding of how PR can affect SEO and Google analytics has
already impacted my media strategies.AC: As someone finely in tune with Hip Hop culture, both
locally and globally, how would you describe the impact and landscape of
it in Ghana and West Africa? How does it compare to Philly and the
U.S.?
M: I learned many years ago, producing the documentary, Hip Hop: The
New World Order, (www.hiphopisglobal.com) the power and impact of Hip
Hop. Hip Hop and Hip Life is the leading force in music in Ghana.
Artists such as Sarkodie, Shotta Wale and Stone Bwoy (Afro-reggae) and
Manifest are at the forefront while legends such as Reggie Rockstone are
still making hits and continuing to build musical and cultural bridges
with international artists. (Check his recent collaboration Selfie Remix
with actor Idris Elba).
The Hip Hop style in terms of fashion and attitude is still very much
influenced by US Hip Hop. And the scene is very much up to date on Hip
Hop music and trends from the US. In the year I have been in Ghana, I am
current on all of the new music and artists including the ratchet
music, which is quite popular in the clubs. At hotspots such as Django
and Yacht Club there are segments dedicated to Ghanaian music, Hip Life
and Hip Hop.
The major difference between the Ghana scene and US scene is that as
much as they know about US Hip Hop, in Ghana they also are huge fans of
their own home grown talent as well as continental Hip Hop stars from
Nigeria and South Africa, whereas in the States we only know about US
artists and sometimes only the mainstream artists played in heavy
rotation on the radio.
The similarity between Philly and Ghana scene would be that they are
both relatively small markets very near to the major market (Philly to
New York and Accra to Lagos) but still holding it’s own and keeping it’s
own Hip Hop cultural identity.AC: What were the challenges in connecting with the Hip Hop, Hip Life, and High Life communities in Ghana?
M: Although I have primarily been working in the tech space while in
Ghana, I haven’t had any challenges with these communities in Ghana. I
have connected with artists such as D Black, Panji Anoff, Wiyaala,
artist manager and entrepreneur Zilla Limann, and Jimmy Davis manager
for songstress Efya. As a matter of fact I have looked to build bridges
and incorporate my relationships within the music industry with the tech
industry. I am in the process of finalizing a partnership with Reggie
Rockstone and a Ghanaian photo-sharing tech start-up called Suba,
(subaapp.com). I have outreach with Nigerian artist/producer elDee who
is also very involved in the tech space.
Through my Africa Love Party series, I have been able to really
connect with key artists, media and personalities in Accra and will be
traveling with the party to other major African cities later this year.

AC: Do the artists you come across make a distinction between
Hip Hop and the growing Afrobeats movement? What is the dynamic around
this like?
M: I haven’t noticed any major distinctions. As far as I can tell,
artists consider themselves Hip Hop even if they perform Hip Life music,
which is basically lyrics in Pidgin/Twi (or other traditional dialect)
and sometimes High life inspired beats.AC: How is technology enabling Hip Hop and Popular Culture in West Africa to flourish?
M: Technology is a major aspect of youth culture, pop culture and Hip
Hop culture. Many artists here just as in the west engage their
international fan base on social media as well as sharing photos,
videos, music, news, and trends. Some of the very popular Nigerian
artists have millions of followers on Twitter and millions of views of
their videos on Youtube. Mobile phones also play a significant role
because many people may not own a personal computer so the phone serves
as the major connector. Unfortunately it is still very difficult for
even the most popular artists in West Africa to realize revenue from
their music sales. There are African versions of iTunes/Spotify but
adoption of online payments is still slow especially in a market like
Ghana compared to Nigeria.AC: What roles do you see technology playing in the future of
the music industry, and what kind of career opportunities does it
create for people like the students and young entrepreneurs you spend a
lot of time advising?
M: Solving problems and creating solutions to everyday problems with
technology and innovation for Africans as well as the people around the
globe is a huge opportunity for young entrepreneurs. The ideas are here
but the investment, training and promotion/publicity are finally getting
here to support Africa’s contribution to technology. What’s happening
with US entertainers using their star power to align themselves and
resources to invest in tech ideas, startups and entrepreneurs will fast
track some of the more consumer based ideas as well as offer potential
revenues for both parties.
I would strongly advise any young person to learn as much as they can
about technology and consider a career in tech. There are many
opportunities both career wise and entrepreneurial that exists in
technology. I work with young entrepreneurs who complete a 1-2 year
intensive training program that provide them with the tech and business
skills necessary for launching a successful tech company. They are
proving on a daily basis that stellar ideas can come from any place on
earth. These entrepreneurs inspire me on a daily basis and I am even
developing my own tech startup, so stay tuned!Back in the late 1990’s Muhammida made a brave power move that is
now paying off in more ways than one, especially with increased
developments in new technology. She had neither a corporate sponsor nor a
stack of 401Ks. What she did have was keen intelligence, a love for Hip
Hop culture and that fearless and confident Philly style. Muhammida was
a Philly Girl in search of the marvelous. She embarked on an
international film tour to Brazil, Nigeria, South Africa, France,
England, Japan and Germany to document Hip Hop Globally; and it’d be
featured in her film, “Hip Hop: The New World Order,” which is now
available for video streaming and downloading. Muhammida shared some
words on how her Film production came together, and what it was like –
before that time – doing entertainment marketing for Nike and the
William Morris Agency.

S: Spady
M: Muhammida
S: Did you know any Global Hip Hop cultural beings from Africa or the African Diaspora while a student at Howard University?
M: I mean, there may have been but none that I had contact with.
They listened to what was on the radio. But I didn’t know any
international people during the Howard days who were interested in the
business side or anything like that.
S: When you saw Japanese Hip Hop Headz in New York clubs did you approach them to learn more about their interest in Hip Hop?
M: I didn’t approach any of them. I just observed. I knew it was
very big over there because I saw so many Japanese in Hip Hop clubs in
New York. I also saw Hip Hop artists from here going to Japan. So when I
went to New York I was on an exploratory trip.. Most places I went, to
be honest with you, had only one or two phone numbers. It was not this
researched and planned out kinda thing. In some of these countries where
I went in search of Hip Hop, I was there for one day and the person
with me would be like, ‘What are you going to find in one day?’ I’m
like, ‘just drive me where I need to go and translate.’ [Muhammida
laughs knowingly]. Don’t ask me questions because the whole concept just
sounds ludicrous. I mean, here I am, I am not traveling with a
budget. I got my first camera when I was already in Japan. I got a
mini-tv camera. Now, what I shot on Global Hip Hop is so rare!
Honestly, when I was doing my film it felt like I was on a Hip Hop
Underground Railroad!
S: Why do you say that?
M: Because when you were on the Underground Railroad you would just
know one person and you would look for these signs on the doors or on
the coats in the window or whatever it was and that is how it was when I
was traveling around the world doing my film on Hip Hop. I’m serious, I
would have one or two people who I would approach and I’d be searching
for Hip Hop like I’m searching for freedom in the 1800’s. And Hip Hop
was every place I went. It turned into a domino effect. I would go
somewhere and they would say, ‘Oh, she’s here looking for Hip Hop,
working on this Hip Hop Film Project.’ And they’d be like, ‘You need to
meet this person,’ and I would end up covering the theme, who is who in
each country I visited…… When I was in Japan the first time I didn’t get
to the radio stations. I’ve been to Japan two or three times. The
second time I went there I did another event. And the third time I
wasn’t filming at all.
S: Were you already working at Nike at this time or was that later on?
M: I got hired at Nike when I was in France. I got hired while I was shooting in Europe.
S: What did you do at Nike?
M: At Nike I did Entertainment Marketing. So I worked in the music
division. I oversaw all of our music relationships and labels; anything
that had to do with the music.
S: Who were the artists you handled while at the William Morris Agency? Wasn’t that before you joined Nike?
M: Yes, I worked at the William Morris Agency. I worked in the
music-booking department. I knew some of the American artists with
William Morris even before I began working with them. But when I
embarked on my Global Hip Hop Film Project, it wasn’t like I had this
list of contacts. Who would have given it to me? Interest was just
starting. Most of it, I would literally land down and try to figure this
whole thing out.
S: What is the longest period of time you spent in any single country while doing the film?
M: I was in Japan for two months. I was in Cuba for three weeks. But
there, I was filming as I was figuring out Hip Hop communities.
Remember, when I first got to Japan I didn’t even have a camera. I was
in South Africa for six days. I was in Brazil for two weeks.
S: In the film you appeared much more passionate about Hip Hop in
Cuba than any place else you visited. How did the situation differ?
M: You have to remember I was in Cuba for a longer period of time. I
was there for weeks and every day they were like, ‘Come here.’ I spent a
longer period of time with people in the Hip Hop community there. It
was not like we went where it was fast-paced. These artists are not
‘signed.’ You know what I mean? So the access is completely different
and it was a different vibe.To purchase El Muhajir’s Hip Hop: the New World Order
Documentary, the first historical documentary film on Global Hip Hop,
visit: hiphopisglobal.comAnd while you’re at it, check out Suba, the highly acclaimed
photo-sharing mobile app. Download it from the iOS or Google Play store.
http://www.subaapp.com/

About Me

Truth will not make you rich, but it will make you free.--Francis Bacon

Marvin has been ignored and silenced,like Malcolm would be ignored and silenced if he had lived on into the Now. He's one of the most extraordinary, exciting black intellectuals living today --Rudolph Lewis, Chickenbones.